


A Sheepish Breakfast

by TaurusVersant



Category: Final Fantasy XIII
Genre: Gen, Gran Pulse Roadtrip is my bread and butter tbh, excerpts from that or just a roadtrip au with these six would be a ton of fun to make, something to think about
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-08
Updated: 2016-12-08
Packaged: 2018-09-07 07:34:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8789206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaurusVersant/pseuds/TaurusVersant
Summary: You never know what you'll wake up to when dawn comes to Gran Pulse. Greeting the six travelling l'Cie today is...





	

It started innocuously at first.

A crisp morning dawned for the six figures marked as l'Cie, crossing the vast plains of Gran Pulse, and as they woke one found they had a guest. No-one was entirely certain how the small sheep had found and cuddled up to Vanille, but she wasn't complaining in the least, absolutely thrilled with it in fact. 'Affectionate wildlife' Sazh called it. 'A cuddly little thing' Snow commented.

Fang gave Vanille such a lengthy side-long glance it was amazing that no-one either noticed or commented on it.

Everyone definitely noticed when there were more sheep than l'Cie gathered around them the next morning.

“Vanille...” if exasperated amusement could be reflected in one single being, right now that being would be Oerba Yun Fang. The smile on her face was wide, but she was still shaking her head. Honestly. “What have you been leaving out for them?”

“I...” despite her entire grand plan of gathering the sheep around her, Vanille hadn't come up with a good way to explain it to anyone else. The herd surrounded her, some nudging at her hands for attention. The lineup of the other five l'Cie staring at her didn't make this easy. Sorry, four. Snow was playing with some of the little ones that had gathered around him instead of putting food together. Lightning turned and snapped at him. Three, there we go, that was workable.

“It's nice!” A little more confident with a pair of the larger sheep supporting her on either side, Vanille lifted her head slightly, focusing on Fang especially. “Reminds me of home.”

Immediately Fang lost all of the fight in her, stepped forward and crouched down to one of the sheep, ran a hand over each side of its head. It baa'd happily at the preening. “It does feel that way, doesn't it?” she murmured softly.

“Did you have a lot of them around where you lived?” Hope was interested now, following Fang's lead in rubbing the head of one of the sheep. Sazh was a moment behind.

“Yeah big herds!” Vanille's excitement caused a few of the sheep to shift a little around her, but the ones closest immediately calmed with a hand on each of their heads. Affectionate was the word alright. “When the weather got real bad they all came and bunched up in a barn, and we'd go down and keep them company to help them stay calm. Just having them around... reminds me of that time.”

“I bet it doesn't remind you of being the one who cleaned the barns out after the weather passed though, huh Vanille?” Fang's words brought a sheepish smile from her, a slight rub to the back of her own head. Sazh chuckled.

“Would you get it together, Snow? We're not making it anywhere on empty stomachs you know!” The only unamused one of the six, Lightning's words pushed some of the sheep to move away from Snow, who had still been petting one, a slightly sad smile to him as he saw them go. Vanille stepped forward to beckon them and they went to gather around her instead, leaving those two standing by themselves. Lightning sighed and set to lending a hand.

“Every day some new monster is jumping out at us, let's at least eat before midday, okay?” Keeping everyone on task was no easy measure, even without a herd of lovable sheep distracting them, but Lightning was never one to back down from anything. They had somewhere to be.

“Hey,” Vanille raised her head hearing the voice directed at her, looked up to Lightning looking down at her as she played with some baby sheep, “what did you give them, exactly?” She didn't seem angry, saving that for keeping Snow in line, but was contemplative and slightly concerned. Vanille shook her head.

“Just some greens I picked along the way, none of the food we'd actually eat.” They had to forage for themselves to keep going, raid old abandoned ruins for anything that could aid them. They didn't have much, having come down to Gran Pulse without a plan for traversing it, but they were making do. Day to day they survived on their journey.

Day to day they had new experiences.

“Just don't give them anything we can use. We barely have enough each day as it is.” Vanille nodded in response to Lightning's words, watched her turn back to set a slab of meat over a prepared fire. The smell of it in the air put the sheep on edge, but the four amongst them helped them keep calm all the same. It was a good way to spend the morning.

Still... watching Lightning's back as she went, Vanille couldn't help but feel she looked lonely, not surrounded by sheep like the others. Even Snow, working through getting food together for them all, at least looked around with a smile every once in a while, nodded to whoever he made eye contact with, stretched and moved. Lightning was just... intent. That didn't seem right at all. Not that she wasn't always like that, but right now especially, with everyone taking a moment away from the stresses to just pet some sheep, having her be the only one left out left a bad taste in her mouth.

“Okay, that should be enough, get some food everyon-” Lightning's words were cut off as she turned around to find a baby sheep pushed right up into her face, held up by Vanille. Her widened eyes behind the ball of fluff said enough for how surprised she was. Vanille smiled widely.

“Sheepie kisses!”

Fang immediately lifted up one of the babies next to her and put it to the side of Sazh's face. He yelped and fell backwards.

“Fang, come on!” He was laughing as he pawed at the point of contact, “How are their noses so damn cold?”

“Ahem.” Lightning had stepped back and crossed her arms, foot tapping at the ground. “We should eat and move. Let's get to it.”

Breakfast was more energetic than normal, what with the herd of sheep moving about and trying to get attention even while the six l'Cie attempted to eat. Still, they managed, and were soon stretching and ready to get on the move again.

“Bye-bye!” Vanille was waving most energetically to the herd as they set out, but some motion from the other five was delivered as well. Snow, Fang and Hope all waved. Sazh nodded with a smile while the chocobo chick that travelled with him fluttered in the air.

Lightning, at the lead, had a small smile of her own which she was a little too late in turning around to avoid having Vanille spot. Vanille beamed at her every time they made eye contact for the rest of the day.

**Author's Note:**

> Some friends of mine were talking about XIII fics today and I kinda got inspired, so I put this little ficlet together. It's a small little thing but it was nice all the same, and it's good to finally actually write something for XIII. For as much as I love the series, I've never written anything for it before, which is just no good at all. So here's my intro to that world and first attempt at handling the characters. Hope you enjoyed.


End file.
